Paper and Threads

I continue to draw from the Masters when I visit our local museum exhibits.

The Neue Galerie has their Klimt collection on exhibit as part of a world-wide tribute on Klimt's 150th birthday.  In addition to their paintings, they exhibited many of his drawings and photos.  It is a very small collection that is on display, but I love his figure drawings and sketched several heads.  I also sketched two scuptures I like, Kneeling Youth, by George Minne.

I met my Art Buddies at The Museum of Modern Art to see the newest exhibit, New to the Print Collection: Matisse to Bourgeois.  I love most of Jasper Johns prints and the first print in the entire exhibit was no exception.  Titled "Untitled," it is an aquatint of images found in many of Jasper Johns paintings - discs, a ladder, the vase-face double image, and figures.  Since I will never own one of these prints, I was inspired to sketch and paint a version of it just to remind me how much I enjoyed seeing it.  Last year I fell in love with these Jasper Johns "Seasons" aquatints that were being auctioned at Sothebys.

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Our Meetup Drawing Group met in Battery Park yesterday in spite of the heat wave and threats of thunderstorms.  It is at the tip of Manhattan, and the site of the piers for the Long Island Ferry and boats to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  The views across New York Harbor are magnificent.

I did 3 sketchbook pages, each in about 30 minutes.  Our leader selects a spot and we are free to wander and select anything we want to draw.  The group then meets back after each sketch to lay out their drawings for all to see.

Here are my 3 sketchbook pages: a view across the Harbor, part of one of my favorite statues, and a single flower.

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I went to figure drawing at the Society of Illustrators on Tuesday evening and Figure Al Fresco at Battery Park City on Wednesday afternoon.  These are very different experiences, nude models at the Society of Illustrators (with music and wine) and a free 2 hour session with a clothed model outside in Battery Park. 

 I'm going to just post a few drawings from each session - I still feel as if I took too long a break during the months I was traveling so much and now will try to remedy that.

Society of Illustrators:  2 minute pose.  A pencil shaving fell out of my sketchbook onto the scanner and I didn't notice it until all of my scanning was done!

Two 5 Minute Poses:  I can rarely see the models' feet from where I am sitting! 

20 Minute Pose Done with Watercolor pencil, paint, and water. 

Figure Al Fresco:  This is a wonderful public park art program that takes place for 2 hours (weather permitting) along the Hudson River in Battery Park City from May through October.  There were 7 of our group of friends there on Wed. increasing the number attending to a new all time record (>51).  The model was very inexperienced, but I just tried to capture her gestures quickly and had a lovely afternoon.

One Minute Poses for Gesture Drawing:  Here are 9 of the 11 poses that were drawn in my 9 X 12 sketchbook with a 9B pencil.

1 minute Poses for Gesture Drawing:

5 minute Pose. 

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We traveled so much in May and early June that I missed my monthly figure drawing session at the Society of Illustrators.  When I went back this week, I felt very rusty! 

Here are a few of the 18 poses that I did.

Three 2 minute poses - fast portraits of the two models:

One 5 minute pose:

One 10 minute pose:

Two 20 minute poses - drawn with watercolor pencils and then "painted" with water:

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Last week we had a special day with our 5 year old grandson Callum.  We rarely get him alone, without his big brother and sister, or slightly older cousin.  But we missed the last Grandparents Day at his preschool because of our trip to Venice, so we took him to the American Museum of Natural History.  He wanted to go to see Creatures of Light (bioluminescense exhibit) and I wanted to see the Imax film "Born to Be Wild."  While walking between the two, I stopped for an incredibly fast sketch of a mountain sheep.  I left it in graphite as a reminder of how quickly this was sketched (i.e <5minutes).

Last evening I didn't feel like sketching, but wanted to push myself.  I opened my Reference Photo folder on the computer and selected this photo (taken on a street in Chelsea New York in April).  I rarely paint with watercolor, without drawing in ink, so this became a practice sketchbook page.  I have no idea what they were looking at and photographing.  I was concentrating just on the man and his dog long enough to get this photo. 

I spent today with my Mother in her retirement complex in New Jersey.  We take long walks and usually stop for coffee.  While sitting and talking, I doodle, drawing with ink and painting with watercolor pencils.  Today she thought that the lady looked a little like her.  Usually she tells me why my sketches are NOT her.

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